All Along the Watchtower
by ADayDream'sDream
Summary: They go back in time and suddenly Ben is alive. Everyone can see him, it's wonderful. Klaus feels abandoned by the only person who he could count on to always be there.
1. Chapter 1

Klaus sat at the breakfast table long after everyone else had left. Mom was doing the dishes, humming along to some unheard song They'd done this every day for the last week. Before that Klaus hadn't left his room for a week trying to keep clean and before that, well, before that they'd been in the future. He knew that if he continued to sit there, she would ask him if he was okay.

Was he okay? He wasn't sure. Ben was alive. They were all thirteen again. Young and trying to figure out what to do. Everyone else was trying to get closer, lessen the gaps between them so that they wouldn't be so broken. Vanya was included in anything they did.

Klaus wasn't. He had gone through withdrawal for this timeline already, two days of sweating and shaking alone in his room and none of them had even noticed. So he had said screw it and done a line. The high wasn't to help get rid of the ghosts this time, it was to make the sting of the living's rejection less sharp and more bearable. He'd regretted it when he came down and gone through another two days of detox

"Is everything okay dear?" Mom asked and he shrugged

"I'm going for a walk." He said standing and he headed out of the house. It was odd to be thirteen again. His memories of this time from before were hazy, drug laden, and fractured. He headed down to the library and climbed the steps. Heading over to the front desk he slapped a five-dollar bill down on the desk

"I'd like to get a library card." He said to the woman standing there. She smiled sweetly at him and helped him fill out the necessary paperwork. He gave her a false name, not wanting it to get around that there was a Hargreeves going to the library. Once he had his card he slipped into the shelves. He collected two books, one on mathematics because he would be damned if he relied solely on Five to get them through this, and the other called 'The Giver'. The second book was a few years old but he had heard about it in the original timeline. Sitting in the back corner where no one would find him, he settled down to read. After several hours he packed up the two books, grabbed two more on mathematics, and went to check out. The woman smiled at him as she filled out the cards

"Someone is interested in math." She commented and he gave her a tight-lipped smile before leaving. He hid the books in the hole under the loose floorboard beside his bed. It had been where he had stashed his drugs and alcohol before he had gotten sober. He made his way down to the dinning room where it seemed everyone was waiting for him so that they could eat

"Try to be on time Klaus." Allison said sharply and he shrugged.

"Whatever." He said picking up his fork and beginning to eat without waiting for anyone. Allison pursed her lips in disapproval.

Ben knew something was up with Klaus. He was disappearing a lot. They had been in this timeline for two years now and Klaus disappeared every day. Sometimes he was back for lunch, sometimes he didn't return until after dinner. Ben knew the others were trying to ignore the oddities. Ben hadn't realized that they didn't include Klaus in the things they did until two months after this behavior started and when he brought it up to Allison and Luther, they got squirmy and simply said that they didn't feel like Klaus wanted to be included.

Today was one of the days that Klaus didn't return for lunch. They had sat at the table with Father for half an hour before the old man allowed them to eat. Klaus hadn't been there for dinner either, Father hadn't made them wait then, simply picked up his fork and started eating when it became clear that Klaus wasn't going to show. So Ben found himself sitting on the steps facing the front door waiting. It opened at nine and Klaus carefully shut it like he was trying not to be noticed.

"Where have you been?" Ben asked. His voice was soft but in the silence it carried. Klaus jumped, obviously not expecting Ben to be sitting there. He fumbled with the stack of books in his hands, trying not to drop them. Once he had control of his wares he turned and glared at Ben

"None of your business." He said heading past Ben and up the stairs. Ben watched him go. He wasn't sure when they had grown apart. Somewhere when Ben had been happy that the others could see him, they had all lost sight of Klaus.

College was amazing, Klaus thought. Passing the entrance exam had been a little more difficult than he had expected but when all he did was read it hadn't been as hard as he had thought. Using the ghosts to tell him the answers had also helped. It had only took him six months to get into college, he wondered what he could do with the rest of his life here. He was on a track for mathematics of course, scoring so high on the entrance exam the college had given him a scholarship for it. Klaus felt a little bad for ignoring the rest of his family but didn't let himself dwell on it. If they wanted to talk to him, they would have. He wasn't always gone. Klaus sat on his bed with his books scattered around him and his homework in his lap. He was humming along with the cassette he had playing softly for background noise as he slowly worked through the algebra that had been assigned. There was a knock on the door and he hurried to cover the array of books with his bedspread.

"What?" He called and the door opened to show Ben and Five standing there.

"We were wondering if you wanted to train with us?" Ben said and Klaus raised an eyebrow

"I'm good." He said. Five scowled

"You haven't trained or been on a mission since we got here. I think it's time you started pulling your weight again." He snapped and Klaus grinned

"When have I ever pulled my own weight. I talk to ghosts, not much use on missions and I'm weak as hell even when I did train. Again, not so good on missions. Father doesn't seem to care anyways so what's it to you?" Klaus said flippantly. Five snarled and rushed up to Klaus pushing him off the bed. Of course, Klaus hadn't been prepared for it and took his bedspread with him revealing the books that were scattered across the sheets.

"What the hell is all this?" Five said picking up his physics textbook. Klaus climbed to his feet and snatched the textbook out of his hand

"None of your business." Klaus snapped before shoving Five out of the room and slamming the door.

"What was the book?" He heard Ben ask

"Some physics textbook. I didn't think Klaus could understand stuff like that." Five said sounding shocked. Klaus gathered all his text books, including the ones he had hidden under his bed and in the closet into a suitcase. Once they were in, he started shoving clothes into the suitcase and zipped it shut. He lugged the suitcase out of his room and down towards the front door.

"Where do you think you're going?" A deep voice asked and Klaus stopped. He turned to see their Father standing in the drawing room door, Pogo standing beside him

"I'm going to stay with a friend. I can't stay here with them." Klaus said. He expected his father to look disappointed

"In your timeline the first to go was Allison. But this is a new timeline and so it seems you will be the first of my flock to leave." Reginald said solemnly. Klaus didn't blink. His throat closed up when he realized that it was true. He would be the one to start the imminent scattering of the Hargreeves family.

"I'll come back some time. To visit." Klaus said before he could stop himself. Reginald smiles sadly

"I prepared for your leaving. There is an apartment not far from campus that you may have." The old man said holding out a key. Klaus left his suitcase to take it.

"Why? You never said anything about me going to college. How did you know?" He asked and Reginald clapped him on the shoulder

"You Klaus was always the one I regretted breaking. You held so much potential and I went about trying to shape it wrong. Your brothers and sisters all think they can go back to their old timeline, their old live. But you, you learned the truth. What is that?" Reginald said and Klaus swallowed thickly

"There is no going back. Each time we jump we create a new timeline that overwrites what we were in. You can't go back to one that you've already been to. They don't exist anymore." Klaus said and Reginald nodded

"I'll give you a secret, you were always the brightest of my children. Even if Five thought he was the genius you were always the one who scored higher on the tests." Reginald said. Klaus nodded, his mind whirling with the information he had received.

"Go, before someone comes down to find you still here." Reginald said giving Klaus a little push. Klaus nodded and grabbed his suitcase before walking out the door. He paused outside the house, looking up at the window to Mom's room and saw her there. She gave him a little wave and a smile before he turned down the street and started walking.


	2. Chapter 2

Allison realized halfway through breakfast that Klaus was missing. She didn't think much of it until the next day when he still was missing.

"Mom, where is Klaus?" She asked and their mother hummed, holding a hand to her breast with a fond smile

"Dear Klaus has moved out. Your father is so very proud of him." She said happily. Allison dropped her spoon into her oatmeal. Father was never proud.

"What do you mean?" Vanya asked softly.

"Your father said that he needed to be closer to his school. Me and Pogo are going to finish packing his room for him to ship over to his new apartment this week." She said happily. Allison was confused, Klaus didn't go to school. He was a junkie, a deadbeat. He spent all his time high as a kite.

"The physics textbook. It wasn't a high school level. Is Klaus in _college_?" Five asked Mom sounding confused and impressed. Mom beamed and sighed

"Oh yes. Your father is so proud of him. He's going to go very far." Mom said and Diego slammed his fist down on the table

"Fucking asshole. He's supposed to be helping us stop the apocalypse not running off to college." Diego snarled and everyone jumped at the venom in his voice.

"When has Klaus ever been helpful?" Luther said glumly swirling his oatmeal around with his spoon. Allison felt like she should say something to defend Klaus. It wasn't like they had tried to include him. He'd always creeped her out a bit, creeped them all out with his abilities. Ben had told them that every time they ragged on Klaus about him, he had _actually_ been there and none of them had believed Klaus. It had eaten at her until she couldn't bear to look at Klaus without getting the overwhelming urge to beg for his forgiveness. She knew Luther felt the same. Klaus was always an enigma and he hadn't seemed to want any of them to get close to him. But maybe that was part of the problem. They'd stopped trying. They were thinking about how Klaus was in the future, not giving him a chance here.

"Mom, do you know his address? I would like to visit him." She said picking up her spoon and taking a bite of her oatmeal. Mom frowned, obviously trying to pull up the location of her missing child

"I'm afraid I do not know Klaus' new address. I'm sure your father would be happy to give it to me for you." She said turning back to her dishes. Allison finished her breakfast and noted that Ben hadn't touched his. He seemed lost in thought, brow creased and a frown on his face.

"We should get to training." Ben said pushing away from the table. Allison did the same and the others followed.

It had been two weeks since Klaus had moved out. Everyone was walking on eggshells, waiting for another of their numbers to take off. Luther didn't think he could handle much more of it.

"Hey Father, that book on calculus that you said I could borrow, can I have it now?" Klaus voice echoed around the corner and Luther stumbled to peer around to find Klaus and their father walking towards the study

"I do believe it's in the library. Have you finished the book on organic chemistry already?" Their father asked and Klaus nodded

"Yeah, finished it last night. I'm starting to realize how Five came up with the idea that time doesn't rewrite itself. He's basing it off the Everett interpretation which is stupid because then there would be two of us in this world. He probably thinks that we replaced ourselves but for that to have happened we would have started to forget the future or else go mad, right. So obviously since there's not two of us running around and we haven't gone mad or forgotten where we came from, we must have overridden what _was_ with what _is_. After all, if you think about time like a mathematical formula, when you replace a piece you never get the same answer in the same way, you have to edit the whole problem to get that same answer. Theoretically the apocalypse could still happen but the equation would become longer and more complex and it's easier to get a different answer." Klaus was saying, his hands waving as he spoke to show his point. Their father was listening intently. Luther felt a stab of jealously at the fact that Father found Klaus important enough to focus on completely.

"And how is your control of the ghosts going?" Father asked and Klaus shrugged

"Now that I'm on Lithium they aren't so overwhelming. I can sift through them and ignore the ones I want. It's nice." Klaus said and to Luther's surprise, Father smiled and clapped Klaus on the shoulder

"I'm pleased that you are no longer afraid of your abilities. I have set up my own counseling session with a well-respected woman. I hope she can give me insight on how I failed as a father." Their father said and Luther was floored. None of the others knew anything about this. Quickly so that he wasn't noticed, Luther rushed back to Allison's room where the others had gathered

"Klaus is here." Luther said and immediately Ben was on his feet. Luther watched Ben leave

"Why is he here?" Allison asked and Luther shrugged

"Something about a book and the time traveling problem. He thinks we're rewriting history and that if we weren't, we'd all have gone mad or something." Luther said and Five frowned

"That doesn't make any sense. What did he say exactly?" Five demanded and Luther shrugged.

"I donno. It was something about an equation." He said and Five huffed.

Ben peered into the library where he saw Klaus going through the shelves.

"Hey." Ben said and Klaus jumped. Klaus turned to him and gave him a weak grin

"Hey. Sorry looking for a book." He said before turning back to the shelves

"Wanna catch a movie?" Ben asked shuffling into the room. Klaus let out a noise

"Shouldn't you be doing that sort of thing with the others?" He asked. There was tension in his shoulders, Ben knew he was intentionally not looking at him and that hurt.

"Nah, wanted to spend some time with you. We've not done that in a while." Ben said casually and Klaus scoffed

"No. We haven't. I've got stuff to do though. I don't have time." Klaus said grabbing a book off a high shelf. His shirt rode up and Ben saw what looked like a tattoo of a familiar creature on his hip.

"What was that?" Ben asked striding over and yanking Klaus' shirt up. Klaus yelped, pulling away but Ben held firm. Klaus had a medium sized eldritch creature wrapping around his hip. There were tentacles spanning up his back and around to his belly button.

"What the hell Ben." Klaus snapped pulling his shirt down. Ben took a step back

"Why do you have…me on your hip?" Ben asked. Klaus frowned

"Really? That's the question you ask? I needed a way to keep you close. You weren't in my head and you didn't seem to have time for me anymore so I figure, hey let's get the tentacle monster tattooed on my hip. At least then when I talk to myself you have an excuse not to talk back." Klaus snapped. Ben looked down, ashamed.

"I'm sorry." He said and Klaus sighed

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to everyone ignoring me. Hell, they didn't even notice when I had been kidnaped and tortured. I shouldn't have expected you to be any different." Klaus said and Ben snapped his head up

"Don't do that." He said and Klaus shrugged

"Forget it. Look if you want to be helpful look for a book titled 'The Art of Numbers' by some old white dude. In our timeline I doodled dicks through out it but I did that when I was sixteen so I'm not sure where it is right now." Klaus said turning back to the shelves. Ben sighed and started looking through the books.

"Please don't shut me out Klaus." Ben said softly pulling the desired book off the shelf. Klaus wouldn't look at him

"I thought you were the one person who wouldn't leave me out. The one person who didn't get freaked out because of what I can do." He said softly. Ben shifted and held the book out

"I know I have a lot to prove. That I hurt you when we got here. Think about this Klaus, I stuck with you when you would OD, when you slept around, when you would walk out of rehab and buy from the first person selling. Why would I leave now?" Ben said. Klaus took the book and clutched it to his chest.

"Because you have the others now. They accept you. You're not stuck with just me anymore." Klaus said and Ben pulled him into a hug

"I don't want anyone else." He whispered into Klaus' ear before pulling away. Klaus looked close to tears as he pushed past Ben. Ben thought he was going to walk out and leave again when he turned to Ben and gave him a watery smile

"Wanna catch a movie?" Klaus asked and Ben jogged over to him

"Hell yeah." He said taking Klaus' hand. Klaus was shaking, Ben wasn't sure if it was withdrawal or something else but he clung tighter. He wouldn't lose his Klaus again.

It was dark when they got out of the movie theater. They had movie hopped through several films, most were awful. One called Stargate had seemed to enthrall Klaus and Ben had been more interested in the emotions that flickered across the other boy's face than watching the actual movie. Once they were out of the theater Klaus led them down the street in the opposite direction of home

"Where are we going?" Ben asked and Klaus linked their fingers together to keep Ben moving

"There's a park near here, I think. I used to go there in the future and lay out on the grass." Klaus said and Ben nodded. He remembered the park, he would sit beside Klaus' head and watch the other man as he stared at the sky. They found the park an hour later, it had been two blocks further west than Klaus had remembered. Klaus flopped down on the grass and Ben took up his customary position of sitting beside Klaus' head.

"What are you on right now?" Ben asked and Klaus got an odd look on his face

"Nothing. I'm clean." He said and Ben didn't push. He wasn't sure if he believed that but he wasn't going to ruin the moment.

"I know you don't believe me. I _am_ clean though. Have been since the second week we've been here." Klaus said with a sigh. Ben pulled Klaus' head into his lap and started to stroke through his hair. Klaus grinned and seemed to relax

"I believe you." He said and Klaus sighed

"Sometimes when the stress of college gets to be a lot, I want the pills. Want them so bad it hurts. I drink a lot of really shitty coffee and smoke more than is probably healthy but I don't do anything else. It's not worth it." Klaus said and Ben hummed

"I'm proud of you. I don't think anyone went to college in the original timeline." Ben said and Klaus smiled

"Yeah, Vanya maybe but no one else did. I originally went to the library to learn math. Fell in love with science though. Chemistry is amazing. Physics always makes sense. Geology is a bit boring. Astrophysics is my jam though. It's a budding field and I can't get enough." Klaus said pointing up at the stars. Ben looked up, there were very few actually visible but Ben could imagine that somewhere they probably filled the sky

"Do you want to go to space?" He asked and Klaus chuckled

"Nah, space craft would trigger my claustrophobia. And Father would never allow it. I think he's humoring me when he says he's going to go to therapy. He does it because I threatened social services." Klaus said and Ben choked on his own spit

"What?" He said and Klaus grinned up at him

"Yeah, so about a year after we got here I learned that not only is it illegal to buy children but it's also very illegal to lock them in a mausoleum for days on end. I mean, there are claw marks on the inside of the door so all I would have had to do was show the cops that and boom. Jail for the old man. Haven't you noticed that he doesn't have missions for you guys anymore? That he pretty much leaves all of you alone?" Klaus said and Ben laughed

"You're a genius Klaus. I can't believe you had the balls to say that to him." Ben said, mirth bubbling over in his voice. Klaus' smile grew

"Yeah, he sucks up to me now as well. I think he knows I hold power over him and that I'm not afraid to use it." Klaus said. Ben smiled fondly down at him and began to stroke his hair again. It was curly and soft and Ben didn't want this moment to ever end.


End file.
